Operating in 18 countries and managing brands such as Ikea, Zara and Marks & Spencer, Emirati group Al-Futtaim (2025 revenue: US$9.7 billion, up by 6%) has a unique vantage point from which to observe shopping behaviour around the world. Marketing automation with Bloomreach, payment system overhauls and traffic from ChatGPT and Gemini: Eric Meulien, General Manager Digital Retail at Al Futtaim, explains the technology choices at the heart of the group’s strategy.
Al Futtaim manages 200 brands across home furnishings, beauty, fashion, food and other sectors in 18 countries. How is traffic from LLMs evolving across categories?
AI search engines are very useful for understanding which questions people ask most frequently about particular products. Brands are often slow to address these questions, especially when it comes to practical considerations. Customers ask questions that brands often have no answers to. For example, we distribute a leading lingerie a
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Article authors
Sophie Baqué
Chief Editor of mind Retail